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Portables (Games) Classic Games (Games) Emulation (Games) Hardware Hacking PlayStation (Games) Sony

Gameboy Emulator Released for PSP 212

Posted by CmdrTaco from the let-the-hackalanche-continue dept.
HelloGamer writes "The first real Gameboy emulator has just been released for the PSP. It currently only works with the Japanese 1.0 PSP and doesn't have sound support - but it's amazing how quickly these homebrew apps are being developed."
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Gameboy Emulator Released for PSP More

Gameboy Emulator Released for PSP

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  • Gameboy emulator widens appeal (Score:5, Funny)

    by johnamus ( 872886 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @09:35AM (#12487755) Homepage
    I'm going to buy one of these PSP's solely to play gameboy games!
    • That's funny...I'm gonna buy a DS to play Gameboy Advance games ;P
      Plus it'll make a neat little pocket PC once the DS Linux [dslinux.org] project goes a little further. Too bad the touch screen's not pressure sensitive for Gimp use...

      • Re:Gameboy emulator widens appeal (Score:5, Interesting)

        by jericho4.0 ( 565125 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @02:00PM (#12490518)
        If you expect linux-on-a-DS to be anything more than a geeky proof of concept, you might want to hold off on buying one. Unfortunately, the DS is pretty underpowered, IIRC, it doesn't even have the power to decode mp3's in realtime....Still, the porting effort is coming along nicely, and the price is right. I'm waiting for linux-on-a-PSP, myself.

        On that note, I've become convinced that the folks behind psp-linux.org are fools or scammers. Their posts in the forum show a deep lack of skills/knowledge (they thought they could start by hacking on debian-mips/had no knowledge of Magic Gate), they say "only a small minority is qualified for this project" (you have to apply to contribute), and they keep asking for donations to get the work done faster. I've posted some (polite) criticism on these points, and had my posts deleted.

        These guys [sourceforge.net] seem to be the ones to watch.

    • Well it just might be .....

      Some of the guys over at DSDev have some test code to show how presure sensitivity might work. According to the official doco from Texas Instruments on the touch screen it should support it. Something to do with the area over which the pressure is applied based on some special formula. It's all very technical but definitely possible.

      Check it out at .....

      http://www.natrium42.com/blog/?p=18 [natrium42.com]

      Enjoy!
    • This is the first killer must have app for the PSP - assuming that the PSP can handle the emulator without any lag.

  • Thanks for the crap blog link editors! (Score:5, Informative)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) * on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @09:36AM (#12487756)
    Thanks for linking to a crap blog. Let's try for some real content: PS2Dev Forum [ps2dev.org] and the PSP Hacker [psphacker.com] link which contains two QT movies.

  • Copy of the original message at ps2dev (sic) (Score:5, Informative)

    by News for nerds ( 448130 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @09:39AM (#12487787) Homepage
    Author: Amaterasu
    Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 8:57 am
    Post subject: The first GB emulator for PSP was released!

    Message:
    Ladies and gentlemen, hello. I am Japanese who one of the PSP fans.
    GB emulator for PSP was released by Mr. MIRAKICHI in 2ch that was
    the most famous forum in Japan a little while ago.

    It links with the file.
    http://psp.holybell.to/uploader/upload/gbemu1.zip [holybell.to]
    screen shot
    http://psp.holybell.to/uploader/upload/PICT0791.jp g [holybell.to]

    Please rename a GAME ROM to ROM.GB and put it to the same folder as EBOOT.PBP. In the firm only version 1.00, operation is confirmed.
    Please enjoy it!!!

  • Nintendo Industry American Association? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by aussie_a ( 778472 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @09:41AM (#12487809) Journal
    So how long until the NIAA goes after PSP users for being criminals?

    It's crazy enough to just might work.

  • neat, but... (Score:1, Informative)

    by cecille ( 583022 )
    Don't get me wrong, this is a really neat project...it's always nice to see people doing cool stuff with products that the manufacturers probably didn't intend. And I can see this being really great if you really wanted a PSP to begin with, and just popped on the emulator for the sake of having more games....but...I think I'll just stick with my actual gameboy. It's way cheaper and probably less of a pain to get working properly.

  • Nice! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by georgep77 ( 97111 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @09:42AM (#12487821) Homepage Journal
    Sony should be encouraging "home brew" apps for the PSP as much as possible. I believe that much of the early success of the Palm Pilot was due to the community of developers that flocked to the device.

    There are *free* roms available for GBA so I guess the GBA emulator isn't TOTALLY copywrite infringment facilitating software.... :-)

    Cheers,
    _GP_
    • Sony should be encouraging "home brew" apps for the PSP as much as possible. I believe that much of the early success of the Palm Pilot was due to the community of developers that flocked to the device.

      It was :) I had the "pilot 1000" moments after it was released and there weren't many applications. The Pilot had 128k of ram, of which less than 100k were avaliable to the user. I would decide each morning *what* application i wanted that day -- there was only room for the one. Nevertheless some of th

    • Re:Nice! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by r_benchley ( 658776 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @10:18AM (#12488172)
      Sony could give a rat's ass about the homebrew market. If it sells a few more units, they would be pleased, but they need people to buy games. Palm actually made money when they sold their PDAs, so things like homebrew software was a great selling point. Sony (and other video game hardware makers) lose money on the console and generate profits from game royalties. The Dreamcast has a wonderful homebrew/emulation scene, but that didn't help Sega's financial position. If you can't sell licensed software for a video game console, you're dead in the water.
      • They lose money on the PSP's current prices? How much would it cost if Sony broke even?
        • Well, they lose money at first, then eventually they break even and finally they make money on every one sold. Thats how the PS2 went, I don't really see much to make the PSP different. Obviously as time goes on, components get cheaper and the economies of scale really start to become a factor. Still, the majority of Sony's profit will still come from games and not the hardware.
      • Sony is one of the few console companies to ever release a cheap SDK for their unit and actually supported a Linux distribution on their gaming platform.

        Neither was perfect, but I'd never say that Sony doesn't give a rat's ass about homebrew markets.
        • I don't know why people assume there is ZERO technical difficulties with a homebrew SDK kit. Just because you have the tools, doesn't mean it is automatically easy for anyone to do.

      • Re:Nice! (Score:2, Redundant)

        by Queer Boy ( 451309 ) *
        Sony (and other video game hardware makers) lose money on the console and generate profits from game royalties.

        Nintendo has gone on record saying that none of their video game systems have been sold at a loss.

        • Beyond that, Sony, Sega and a few lone console makers sold thier console at a loss.

          I wonder, if anyone told this marketing plan to SNK, would they still be in the console business?

          I wants me an AES
        • That's an interesting statement about Nintendo, especially considering that the Nintendo console is always the cheapest on the market.....

      • Then explain... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Paradox ( 13555 )
        If Sony doesn't care, then why exactly did they allow PSPs to run applications off of memory sticks at all? Why does the PSP have so many extra little features?

        I've talked about this before. I suspect that Sony wants to generate an underground development movement with the PSP to help draw people to it. Handheld platform competition is brutal, but the hackability of the PSP really makes it stand out compared to the DS (and previous consoles).

        Sony will still make money with licensed games, the UMD format i
    • The Palm hardware isn't sold at a loss. Sony plans of making its money off of licensing fees and royalties. First off they can't get that kind of money out of homebrew devs, secondly it acts as competition for the companies who HAVE paid. They're not going to encourage that.
    • Sony is right not to, seeing what just happened.

      First thing done when "hobbyists" got their code running on the thing?

      They ripped games and uploaded them to the internet.

      As far as Sony is concerned, hobbyist = warez.

      Sad yet true.
    • This is the number one reason that I don't own one yet.. unlike the GBA, I am unaware of any open non-$$$$.$$ compiler chains.

      Has someone gotten gcc linking PSP programs yet?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Excellent. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's about time the PSP got some worthwhile games.

  • The trick... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Veinor ( 871770 )
    The trick will be getting a ROM legally. Obviously, the person who wrote this will be getting some flack. Also, if the PSP can emulate the GBA, couldn't it be possible that someone will eventually create a console gaming system that has native support for both DS and PSP? And would it be called DSP?
    • Actually, I can get rom images off of my GBA easily. Very easily.

      All I have to do is plug my fash2advance cable into the GBA and my computers USB port. Then I insert a cartridge (any one) and then store the file on my hard drive.

      Wham. Legal Rom Image. (Though some do still argue against that.)

      I actually copy my favorite games onto a 256 meg flash cart and carry only it around instead of my originals. The 256 meg cart is enough for at least 4 decent sized games and many more smaller ones.
      • Where did you pick up these flash cables and such? I looked at Lik-sang (I believe) a long time ago, but honestly I got lost trying to find anything useful. Is that still the only decent (read: reputable) source?

        I'd love to slim down some games onto a single cart, my GBA carrying case is strained trying to hold all the old GB game cartridges as well as the GBA ones.

        Offtopic to a point, sorry. I've no plans on a PSP nor a DS until some point much later in the future, after price cuts and better game lib
    • No. It won't be possible. How do you plan on emulating the touchscreen on the DS?

  • Sony will keep putting out patches... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Audigy ( 552883 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @09:51AM (#12487920) Homepage Journal
    ...In the meantime, I will stare at my USA-purchased 1.5 firmware PSP and wait.

    I'm not sure when that will be cracked. I do look forward to it, though.

    I refuse to update my firmware any more though, for sure. :)
  • Reminds me of a post a couple of days back when they got linux to load on a Gameboy.

    Would really like to see a psp running a gameboy emulator running linux. Wrap that with wine and guess what, we'll have quake on a PSP.

    Wowie ... that is progress!

  • Looks Amazing, But (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ultimabaka ( 864222 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @10:07AM (#12488051)
    If the PSP's screen resolution is 480x272, and the GBA's resolution is 240x160, then why does the image look so incredibly small? Sure, this thing is still in beta (right?) but for this, I might as well just keep carrying around my GBA. Maybe they shoulda finished the thing before showing it off so much.

    • Re:Looks Amazing, But (Score:5, Informative)

      by Audigy ( 552883 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @10:33AM (#12488316) Homepage Journal
      ....because it's not a GBA that's being emulated.

      It's an original Gameboy. You know, Gameboy Color, monochrome Gameboy - the big carts instead of the smaller ones... four buttons and a d-pad instead of 6 buttons and a d-pad.

      Different processor, apples and oranges.

      I'm sure that zooming and other things aren't implemented yet, just like sound playback isn't implemented yet. I would consider this emulator an alpha release, at best.
      • wow...in all the website I read, not once was I able to notice that it wasn't a GBA being emulated. I was wrong, and thanks for pointing it out :)
    • IIRC, GBC resolution is 160x144.

  • For a broken firmware that is (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MajorDick ( 735308 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @10:14AM (#12488121)
    The japaneese 1.0 firmware isnt available to the masses, and really wont be, expect Sony to make SURE this wont happen on later revs.

    I bought a PSP SPECIFICALLY to run "HomeBrew" apps , but the truth is for the Current version its pretty far off, there was a hack for the 1.0 that let you boot off memory , this IS NOT the case for later versions.

  • Given the amount of high quality open-source emulation programs, these homebrew apps have a great head start. No, I'm not knocking the talent of the authors, I'm merely pointing out this is a benefit of having code open-sourced. Even if one doesn't take that code as a basis for their project, they have a great guide to use for reference/study.
  • I am both ridiculously amused by this, and also deeply saddened. While the DS is not particularly great right now, at the least it had the 'Full library of GBA games' to go along with it. Now the PSP does too. Nintendo's made some pretty dumb moves with the DS, but if they let something like this slip pass their radar, I'll have lost all hope for them. I don't expect this to last very long with both Sony AND Nintendo gunning for it.

    • Re:There goes the DS, eh? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      This is a Gameboy emulator, not a GBA emulator.
    • > Now the PSP does too.

      No, the PSP can now play all those amazing (ahem) black and white gameboy games that looked tired and dated even back then. Apart from Tetris, of course.

    • Re:There goes the DS, eh? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well... it's worth noting that this emulator is for *original* Game-Boy games only. Not GBA games. I'd guess GBA emulation is a few months away, still. Of course, the amusing thing is that you can't actually play original GB games on the DS.

      However, the main thrust of what you say will probably turn out to be true. GBA back-compatibility on the DS was a big plus for the system, particularly given that its native games lineup is still looking pretty weak, even by comparison with the newly released PSP. If t

      • However, the main thrust of what you say will probably turn out to be true. GBA back-compatibility on the DS was a big plus for the system, particularly given that its native games lineup is still looking pretty weak, even by comparison with the newly released PSP. If there is a well-known, easily accessible GBA emulator for the PSP, this could be a significant factor in deciding the overall result of this particular round of the console wars.

        No, no, no, no. Unless the GBA emulator comes preinstalle

      • "Of course, the DS is largely emulator-proof through its touch-screen concept... unless somebody wants to produce homebrew hardware."

        Like this company? [wacom.com]

    • This isn't a GBA emulator yet.

      Plus, this requires people to either do s0m3 qU3st10nAbl3 s0rch1ng to find the ROMs to play on the emulator, or get special hardware to transfer their games from the cartridges, then somehow get the emulator and ROMs to boot. All the while DS' GBA emulation is "just stick the cartridge in, power on, and tap 'Play GBA game' or push down-down-A."

      (Okay, DS doesn't play mono-GB or GBC games either. Big deal, I seem to favor new games and I have GBA and GC GBPlayer for those mom

    • Well, no. Because the DS can actually run GBA games, whereas the PSP can run... GB games. You know, the 20 year old ones. Using a memory bug that Sony has patched.

      Not only that, but, putting GB games on a GBA flash cart is trivial. Hell, you can fit a few hundred on one cart -- all using an emulator, not the GBA hardware (so they'd work on the DS).

      Heck, if you know the right flash kits to get, you can even have full PDA functionality on your GBA SP -- and get some really REALLY big flashcarts (1gigabi
    • The PSP is not getting the full library of GBA games. In fact, it's not likely that this will affect the DS at all.
  • I wish there were a way to use my familiar Linux development environment to crank out networked multimedia apps on PSP. The PS2 at least had a version of Linux that ran on it, for some development action. What does it take to port a small Linux game to PSP?
  • But, beep, beep [slashdot.org].

  • At last! (Score:4, Funny)

    by iapetus ( 24050 ) on Tuesday May 10, 2005 @12:46PM (#12489673) Homepage
    Finally I can play all my old Gameboy games on a portable device.

    No, hang on a second...
    • The real advantage is that you can store multiple games on one memory stick. This way you don't have to carry a bunch of catridges around or worry about your kid losing his games.
      They have memory cartridges for the Gameboy Advance that can do this, and also run homebrew programs or emulators.
  • There are many gameboy emulators out there, written in C, and fairly easy to port with a little effort. It has not been written from scratch.
  • I hope this isn't redundant, but is there a guide to safely Flashing the firmware down to 1.0 (and a place to download it)?
  • Just wait until someone realizes how to emulate a GBA, then the flames will go sky high!

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